The prime minister was off in Vaughan, Ontario, a housing announcement, while his deputy was on her way to Kingston for a separate event, while some of the other leaders were present in the Chamber. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, reciting talking points and misleading about the promise around food prices, demanded they be reduced immediately. François-Philippe Champagne said that first Poilievre was trying to tell people to buy crypto and now he wanted them to buy $120 turkeys, but they needed to support their legislation on competition. Poilievre called Champagne the “turkey in this joke,” and decried that the price of turkey had gone up 67 percent in eight years. Speaker Fergus warned about comparing members to animals, before Champagne listed the ways in which they are trying to rein in grocery prices. Poilievre switched to English to repeat his demand to bring down prices in the next four days. Champagne loudly declared that he would take no lessons from the Conservatives, and said that he found a Butterball for Poilievre for $30. He got warned about using props, and Poilievre made a little pun about people not wanting Champagne for Thanksgiving, and complained that turkeys these days are skimpy and looked like they have been “taxed to death.” Champagne tried to come back with people not having fun these days, and got applauded by the Conservative benches, before he pitched support for their competition bill. Poilievre gave a few more of his slogans, and Champagne said that the best way to help Canadians was to support their bill.
Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, and he railed that Marc Miller not admitting that French is in decline in Quebec. Pablo Rodriguez cautioned that they need to be careful with statistics, because more people are speaking French than ever before, and stated that he was living proof because he grew up speaking Spanish and is now a francophone. Therrien railed that it meant the government could not understand about settlement capacity, and this time Miller got up to point that the statistics the Bloc are citing are about “mother tongue” which is not the same thing as people not speaking French, and that they shouldn’t misrepresent the situation.
Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, and he railed that the government is not helping with the price of food by not stamping down on corporate greed. Anita Anand took this one, and patted herself on the back for the government’s programmes to help Canadians. Singh worried that Shopper’s Drug Mart is rolling out American-style healthcare, to which Mark Holland patted himself of the back for reducing drug costs through bulk purchasing and working on pharmacare legislation.
In the wake of the black eye that Canada collectively received after former Speaker Anthony Rota’s embarrassing blunder in recognising the Nazi-aligned veteran in the House of Commons, there has been some more soul-searching institutions around similar figures that that particular veteran. The University of Alberta returned a donation from said veteran to be used for their Ukrainian Studies programme, but more problematic for the institution was their former chancellor, Peter Savaryn, who was in the same Waffen-SS Galacia Division unit, and now Rideau Hall has apologised because Savaryn had also been granted the Order of Canada back in 1987, citing limited information sources at the time.
This has led Jewish groups in particular to call for the government to open up the archives related to the Deschene Commission, which looked at potential war criminals who resettled in Canada after the war, but a great many of their findings were redacted and kept secret. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says that senior bureaucrats are reviewing the Commission report, and considering making more of it public. But this is also being used as a political wedge. Conservative deputy leader Melissa Lantsman is demanding the government take action on this, but meanwhile, one of her own MPs, Gérard Deltell, was saying in the media that he doesn’t think they need to revisit this history, that the past should remain the past.
But this isn’t necessarily a black-and-white issue, particularly for some Ukrainian communities in this country because they saw those people as nationalists who were using any means necessary to fight the Russians, who had already invaded and subjected them to a genocide—the Holodomor—and one suspects that Cold War considerations meant that it was in our interests to focus on the anti-Soviet aspect of their records during that period. But there are also a number of monuments to those Waffen-SS Galacia Division units across this country, particularly in private Ukrainian cemeteries, because of that complicated history, and it’s something we should have a national conversation and perhaps reckoning about sooner rather than later. But we need to be aware that this is fraught territory, and will be difficult for some.
Ukraine Dispatch:
Ukraine has carried out a drone strike on a Russian defence complex over the border in the Belgorod region, which is a rare admission of such an attack. This as Russians are claiming that they shot down a major Ukrainian drone offensive on their border regions. Meanwhile, the IMF says that Ukraine’s economy is expected to keep growing next year.
Another six cases of extrajudicial executions of Ukrainian prisoners of war by russian occupiers have been confirmed in a new report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
⚡️ISW: Russia transfers Black Sea Fleet vessels to avoid Ukrainian fire.
According to sattelite images from Oct. 1 and 3, the Russian military has moved at least 10 vessels from Sevastopol to Novorossiysk.https://t.co/bGqG0UfVnI
Following his first procession as Speaker, and the usual bout of Members’ Statements, things got underway in earnest. Pierre Poilievre led off, worrying that 63 percent of Canadians are suffering from high grocery prices and demanded to know if the prime minister would bring prices down by Monday as promised—erm, which was not the promise. Justin Trudeau said that they tabled a bill to increase competition, but the Conservatives have been obstructing it, so they need to walk the talk. Poilievre repeated his demand, and have a list of specific demanded price reductions. Trudeau repeated that the Conservatives are playing political games by holding up the bill. Poilievre gave a rare third question in French and declared that they can ram through anything they want with their “coalition” with the NDP, and railed about the carbon price, and repeated again a demand to bring food prices down (which was not the promise). Trudeau listed things that the Conservatives have tried blocking with parliamentary tactics, while the Liberals were working to help Canadians. Poilievre switched to English to complain that the prime minister was blaming everyone but himself before repeating his demand for price reductions by Monday. Trudeau said that this was just a political game as the Conservatives were not working with them to move their bill through before Thanksgiving. Poilievre repeated his itemised list of price reduction demands, and Trudeau repeated for a fifth time that the Conservatives have been delaying and obstructing their bill.
Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, and complained that there are 500,000 non-permanent residents in Quebec and claimed that the province couldn’t provide necessary services, and demanded the government reduce their targets. Trudeau said that immigration is a shared responsibility between the federal government with Quebec, and that they are trying to fill labour market needs while they are working to help the provincial government. Therrien insisted that the federal government was being irresponsible and demanded targets be set according to capacity to integrate them. Trudeau disagreed that this was viable, and said that they would work with provinces and municipalities to build more houses to settle more newcomers.
Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, and he praised Wab Kinew’s victory in Manitoba, but his question got drowned out by Conservative uproar, until Fergus brought order. When Singh restarted this time he got drowned out by applause before he demanded the government deal with healthcare needs in that province. Trudeau said he was happy to see Manitobans reject the politics of fear and division before saying that he was looking forward to sign health accord with the new government. Singh hammered about the refusal of the former provincial government’s refusal to search the landfill, and demanded a “Red Dress Alert,” Trudeau read that they released new funds to work on next steps with the landfill search and they were moving forward with the Alert.
Fergus trying to keep the volume down. So far it’s working but we’ll see how long it lasts. #QP
Things got off to a very late start as a result of the Speaker election that saw Greg Fergus take the Chair, somewhat unexpectedly. After the procession returned from the Senate, where they attended the Governor General giving her acknowledgment of Fergus’ new role, things got underway as they normally would, albeit an hour late. When QP got started in earnest, Fergus implored MPs to treat him like a new car and not dent him on the first day.Pierre Poilievre led off in French, citing a payroll institute report on people struggling, and demanded the government refund taxes they have created (though that may have been a translation issue). Justin Trudeau patted himself on the back with the list of programmes the government has been rolling out. Poilievre wondered if Trudeau would reduce the cost of turkey in advance of Thanksgiving this weekend. Trudeau recited about their meeting with grocery CEOs and their “grocery rebate.” Poilievre switched to English to repeat his first question, demanding the government reverse its so-called inflationary deficit and taxes. Trudeau read a list of programmes they have undertaken. Poilievre insisted that Thanksgiving turkeys now cost $120 and demanded to know if they would come down. Trudeau repeated that his government met with grocery CEOs. Poilievre insisted that the government was misleading about that their promise on prices (they weren’t), and Trudeau again recited about what they are doing with grocery CEOs to try and stabilise prices.
Holy inflation, Batman! Poilievre claimed in French that a turkey costs $100, and minutes later claimed in English that it costs $120. That’s positively Venezuelan! #QP
Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, and raised the notion that there are half a million non-permanent residents in Quebec and that this was too many and that their social services couldn’t handle it. Trudeau recited some bland assurances that immigration is good for Canada and they were doing what they could to get everyone employed as soon as possible. Therrien railed that Quebec controls permanent immigration but not temporary visitors and demanded the levels be lowered. Trudeau pointed out that Quebec industry is crying our for workers because there is a labour shortage, which is why they were working with the provincial government.
Jenny Kwan rose for the NDP, and she condemned the government for empty promises on building houses, to which Trudeau read a script about a groundbreaking at a housing project in downtown Vancouver that includes housing for people with HIV. Alexandre Boulerice took over in French and demanded the government instruct the Bank of Canada not to raise interest rates further. Trudeau responded that they respect the independence of the Bank, and read a list of their housing programmes.
Alexandre Boulerice says the government should instruct the Bank of Canada not to raise interest rates. Trudeau reminded him that the Bank is independent, but holy cow is that kind of question utterly alarming about how the NDP thinks about institutional independence. #QP
Yesterday morning, the CBC had a story about the department of national defence looking to cut $1 billion from its books as part of the government’s ongoing spending review, and people lost their gods damned minds, both in Canada and in some international venues. The story was based on comments that were made at committee by the chief of defence staff and the deputy minister, and they talked about how it was going to be challenging to meet these reductions while worrying about capabilities. This was a bit of a surprise, because Anita Anand had previous said that defence was going to be exempt from her cost-cutting demands, but the comments from General Eyre and the deputy minister sounded like DND volunteered to do their share (which I always treat with suspicion—the previous Auditor General made his own pledge to do his part to make cuts as part of the Deficit Reduction Action Plan™, and lo, wound up delaying badly overdue IT upgrades that his successor needed to beg Parliament for more resources to deal with). And because this is not my first rodeo, I immediately presumed that what this likely means is the accounting game of shifting certain spending into future years or re-profiling some committed dollars that they can’t spend (because they simply don’t have the capacity to spend their current allocation), but a whole lot of people who should know better freaked all the way out.
Bezan asks about the plans to cut defence spending. Blair reads that the Conservatives cut defence spending below 1% of GDP and then reads some pabulum talking points that say nothing. #QP
This came up in Question Period, and Bill Blair was present, but he didn’t really answer the question—he took a swipe at the Conservatives for their record of cutting defence spending to below 1 percent of GDP (indeed, here’s a look back in history of Harper complaining to Peter MacKay that he didn’t cut the military enough) and then read some bland pabulum that didn’t even approach answering the question—because that’s what this government does. It wasn’t until nearly 4 PM that Blair posted a thread to Twitter about how they were still increasing the defence budget, and these $1 billion in savings were internal measures like cutting back on travel and consultants, but noted the spending commitments they’ve made like NORAD modernisation, and ships and planes, and so on.
As part of this growth in defence spending, we’ve committed billions of dollars in new investments – and last week we committed $650 million for 50 armoured vehicles for Ukraine. Those vehicles will be built in London, Ontario.
It absolutely mystifies me as to how this message-obsessed government took almost eight hours to craft a response to this news story that when they could have shut down the hysterical reaction to it in mere minutes had they simply sent out a similar tweet first thing in the morning. There is nothing in there to demonstrate why it took eight hours. They could also have had Blair give a reasonable response during QP that would have simply said “This reporting is exaggerated, we are looking for some efficiencies, but overall defence spending is still increasing,” and it would have defused everything. But they didn’t, either because they’re inept, or it takes them that many hours to get sign-off from Katie Telford’s office, which is a sad sign about where this government is at. But nearly eight hours for this kind of response to the story is unacceptable, and it’s a real-time demonstration in why things need to change at the top with this government.
Ukraine Dispatch:
The first American Abrams tanks are being delivered in the eastern front, in the hopes they will make a difference. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy marked the 82nd anniversary of the Babyn Yar massacre by Nazi forces.
Today, Ukraine and the world commemorate the 82nd anniversary of the Babyn Yar massacre, one of the most terrible Nazi crimes committed during the Holocaust.
I paid tribute to the victims and thanked the Ukrainian Jewish community leaders for coming to pray and commemorate them. pic.twitter.com/J3BVpXLqfm
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) September 29, 2023
⚡️Russian attack damages infrastructure in Vinnytsia Oblast.
On attack on Vinnystia Oblast the night of Sept. 30 damaged an infrastructure facility in the region, Oblast Governor Serhii Borzov reported via Telegram.
With the end of the sitting day last night, Anthony Rota was no longer the Speaker, and Bloc MP Louis Plamondon, the Dean of the House, became Speaker in his place, albeit temporarily. The too-clever-by-half motion that the House passed on Tuesday reads that he was “deemed elected” and is the Speaker to be “styled the Interim Speaker,” which means they’re trying to get around the Constitution for two days in order to run the election on Tuesday instead of today. As is joked, this means that Plamondon is entitled to a portrait (and a Scotch), but it remains mystifying why they couldn’t just swallow the two lost sitting days if they wanted to leave this until Tuesday (Monday is not a sitting day).
Anthony Rota has now officially resigned as Speaker. Louis Plamondon is now the Speaker, styled “interim Speaker” to get past the constitutional hurdles through a bit of too-clever-by-half procedural shenanigans. https://t.co/ThdsGpE2JC
There are currently four declared candidates for the position—the Deputy Speaker, Chris d’Entrement, and the two Assistant Deputy Speakers, Alexandra Mendès and Carol Hughes, along with a surprise fourth entrant, Liberal MP Greg Fergus. d’Entrement has been somewhat acquitting himself in QP over the past couple of days, and seems to have been most vocal in the media, with some outlets ignoring Mendès completely, which they shouldn’t, considering that she came very close to defeating Rota last time. Fergus could be the spoiler this time for Mendès changes when it comes to getting enough votes from fellow Liberals, but it is a ranked ballot, so that could make things more interesting as the math works out. I also have it on good authority that Mendès would be interested in having a Speaker’s Port in addition to a Speaker’s Scotch (as she is Portuguese), and I would very much love to see that happen (as I am a port drinker and not a scotch drinker). I’ve also heard from colleagues to do drink scotch that Rota’s choice was a poor one, so his replacement ushers in hopefully a better one.
Conservative MP and House of Commons deputy speaker Chris d’Entremont, speaking with reporters ahead of his party’s caucus meeting, was asked about his bid for the speakership following the resignation of Anthony Rota.#cdnpolipic.twitter.com/hv32FJI7jS
Meanwhile, the former Chief of Protocol was interviewed on Power & Politics last night, and unequivocally showed that everything Pierre Poilievre has been insisting over the past three days about the government vetting everyone in the building for a diplomatic event has been false. The government doesn’t vet the guests of the Speaker or MPs—only guests of the government, as it should be, because Parliament and the Speaker are independent of government.
Okay, better link to interview with former GAC chief of protocol on how security/vetting within the precinct is handled: https://t.co/5NL651KQmy
Ukrainian officials say they destroyed 34 out of 44 drones launched by Russia overnight, whose main target was Odesa, and there have been no casualties. Meanwhile, they have also seen several hundred Wagner fighters returning to the fight in eastern Ukraine, but they don’t expect them to have much impact.
While the prime minister was still at the United Nations, his deputy was back in Ottawa and introduced a bill earlier in the day, but was absent from Question Period as it got underway, as was at least one other leader. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, and he cited documents published by the Bank of Canada where the governors are worried about creating false hopes about interest rates, and blamed Chrystia Freeland for creating those false hopes when she declared victory over inflation, and it has gone up since, and blamed deficits for this rise (which is not true). François-Philippe Champage replied in English that the last time Poilievre gave people advice, it was to buy crypto, and then patted himself on the back for tabling the bill on removing GST from apartment buildings and reforming competition law. Poilievre accused him of auditioning for the prime minister’s job, and repeated in English his accusation about Freeland and the nonsense about the deficit. This time Anita Anand got up, and she insisted that the government has a plan, unlike the Conservatives, and listed a few measures. Poilievre said that judging by applause, Champagne has a lead in leadership ambitions to Anand before using that as a segue to repeat the line about the Bank of Canada worrying about false hopes. Champagne got back up to again praise the bill they introduced earlier in the day. Poilievre blamed the federal government for housing price, and Sean Fraser got up to say that Poilievre’s plan only tinkers around the edges and doesn’t do anything measurable, and gave a couple of examples, calling Poilievre a “pretender” hanging things in the window. Poilievre insisted that his plan would ensure that nobody got tax breaks for $10 million luxury penthouse apartments, while his plan would get homes built. Fraser insisted that Poilievre’s plan wouldn’t do what he claims, that his government was doing what experts said, and that Poilievre may need to go back to him image consultant and start wearing glasses again if he couldn’t see that.
Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, and he complained that the government was going to impose conditions on the $900 million in housing accelerator funds when social housing is a provincial responsibility. Fraser insisted that he was working with his counterpart in Quebec, in both languages. Blanchet insisted that the government was wasting time while seniors were not getting help with the cost of living, as big oil was making profits. (That’s…a stretch). Jonathan Wilkinson reminded him that they have been eliminating subsidies for the industry while working to create good green jobs.
Alexandre Boulerice rose for the NDP, and railed that the legislation on eliminating the GST on apartment buildings did not contain a definition of affordable. Soraya Martinez Ferrada praised their national housing strategy. Lindsay Mathyssen complained that the government isn’t stopping landlords from evicting people (which is a provincial responsibility), and demanded a federal acquisition fund to buy buildings to keep them affordable. Fraser patted himself on the back for their previous announcement in London, Ontario.
The supposed “1 Million March 4 Children” took place yesterday in cities across Canada, and in most instances, were drowned out by counter-protesters—a welcome sign to be sure. And to be clear, these protests have nothing to do with children, or “parental rights,” but is focused largely on the moral panic around trans rights (and the falsehood that they are mutilating and sterilising children), pronoun policies in schools, and the libel that this is somehow about gays “grooming” children, or indoctrinating them to be gay. The attendees are pretty much a toxic brew of leftover “Freedom Convoy” enthusiasts, grievance tourists, far-right nationals, and some Muslim parents whom they have temporary found common cause with (and don’t expect this to last, given that much of the far-right agitation in Canada has its roots in Islamophobia, but they’re happy to let the Muslims agitate against LGBTQ+ people on their behalf). A few arrests were made at some of the demonstrations, but they were largely peaceful in that regard. (Write-up of the Ottawa event here, with photos here).
If nothing else, a big takeaway from the day is that despite weeks and weeks of planning, organizing, coordinating, and feeding off each other's paranoia and rage, the turnout was laughable. Just because people are extremely loud online doesn't mean they represent the real world.
The hate marchers were FIXATED on equating LGBTQ2S identity with 'grooming'- but teaching someone who is vulnerable that they are your property is one of the most damaging and powerful grooming tactics that are used on abused children & adults
In terms of political reaction, the marchers didn’t get much support, outside of New Brunswick premier Blaine Higgs who greeted them and made common cause with them, because of course he did. In Ottawa, Jagmeet Singh led a counter-protest march, while the Conservatives were instructed to steer clear and say nothing, not even when it was raised in Question Period, as they sat stone-faced when others clapped about the denunciation of anti-trans hate. This silence is of course deliberate—it’s not because of a lack of conviction, but because they don’t want to jeopardise any ability to try and eat into the PPC’s far-right voter base, because that’s how they think they’ll edge out the Liberals in the next election. And I really have to question how MPs like Melissa Lantsman and Eric Duncan can sit there through this as though this doesn’t affect them (because remember, there is not “good parts only” version of right-wing populism. You can’t try and dog-whistle about “gender theory” and think that it’ll stop there, because it won’t).
StOp NoRmAlIzInG SeX aNd NuDiTy.
Good grief.
So many people have whipped themselves into outrage over imagined realities.
The thing that gets me through all of this so-called movement to “protect children” is this insistence that LGBTQ+ people must be “grooming” children or indoctrinating them because there’s this belief that they’re too young to know if they’re gay or lesbian, or even trans. In most cases, that’s not true—most kids know who they are, and most of us older LGBTQ+ people have been through miserable and unsupportive youth and adolescence, and want to ensure that the next generation doesn’t have to go through what we did. That these people are masking their homophobia and transphobia as concern is one thing, but it’s the complete lack of empathy on their part that really gets me.
I’m the parent of a kid who changed their pronouns and first name at school without consulting me.
Russians conducted strikes in at least six cities, including Kyiv, Kherson, Kharkiv, Cherkasy, and Lviv. AP has a look inside a Ukrainian platoon that freed Andriivka. At the UN, president Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the Security Council about Russia breaking the UN Charter.
Justin Trudeau told a climate event at the UN General Assembly that Canada is on track to exceed its methane reduction targets (but we did expand our fossil fuels).
As Trudeau has been having pull-aside meetings at the UN, Australia’s foreign minister calls the allegations about Indian agents “credible.”
Mélanie Joly relayed Canada’s “grave concerns” about Azerbaijan escalating military action in the Nagorno-Karabakh region involving Armenians.
Canada will pull some of its diplomatic staff from India following recent threats.
The Privacy Commissioner says Canada Post broke the law by harvesting information from envelopes and packages.
The Ombudsman for Responsible Enterprise is investigating Levi Strauss for possible forced labour in their supply chain.
Indian officials have suddenly started claiming students in Canada face risks to their personal safety, undermining their own High Commissioner’s comments.
American politicians are warning Canada against implementing a possible digital services tax on web giants (which we won’t do if the OECD gets its act together).
A group of senators are calling on the government to institute stricter criteria for schools that host international students.
Senator Jim Quinn introduced a bill to make the isthmus between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia federal jurisdiction (but that is a money bill and illegitimate).
Here is a look at Senator Marilou McPhedran’s outsized Senate expenses (which includes some journalistic malpractice, like getting quotes from the CTF).
Liberals from Atlantic Canada are calling out Conservative opposition to a bill that would extend the Atlantic Accords to include renewable energy such as wind farms.
Pierre Poilievre tabled his housing bill, which I’m dubious will even be voteable.
The Centre Ice Conservatives/Canadians group is calling their new political party “Canadian Future” (which is almost certainly a doomed venture).
A second Doug Ford minister, Kaleed Rasheed, resigned from Cabinet and stepped away from caucus over a trip to Vegas with Greenbelt Developers and lying about it.
Paul Wells pays a visit to Hamilton East Stoney Creek after the poll numbers look to be shifting there, and talks to the putative Conservative candidate about the mood.
Odds and ends:
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The announcement finally came down yesterday that the government will be launching a public inquiry into foreign interference, with terms of reference that include China, Russia, and any other state or non-state actors whom they see fit, and that this will be expected to have an interim report by the end of February next year, with a final report at the end of the year. Leading the inquiry will be Quebec Court of Appeal justice Marie-Josée Hogue, who has no national security experience, but says she is “honoured” to lead the exercise (though that is not what I would be feeling). The choice of judge and the terms of reference are apparently all unanimously agreed to by the government as well as the three main opposition parties, which is in part why it took so long, but there are still a few red flags, particularly around the timeline. It doesn’t seem either remotely possible or even plausible that the bulk of the work can be completed in five months (Hogue doesn’t start until the 18th), considering how much time it will take to stand up the inquiry’s infrastructure, and for her and her staff to be properly briefed on how to read top secret information and how to contextualise intelligence. This having been said, Dominic LeBlanc says the government will turn over any Cabinet documents she needs, and Justin Trudeau says he’ll willingly testify before said inquiry when asked to, so they’re certainly making a big show about cooperation.
POEC had a little under a year and there were complaints throughout it wasn’t enough time. I have a hard time believing a foreign interference inquiry can be done in less than six months. https://t.co/eYPZYYVoIV
As expected, the opposition parties fell all over themselves to take credit for this, and chided the government for why this took so long to get to this point, as though they weren’t a big part of the problem, most especially in trying to find someone to lead this process who was willing to do the job and subject themselves to the likelihood of daily character assassination in the process (because as much as they say they’re all in favour of this, the moment they think they can score points off of what is happening, they will have zero hesitation in being ruthless in doing so). Already Twitter was abuzz with her political donation history (Conservative), who appointed her to the bench (Peter MacKay), and her previous law firm (which has Liberal and China connections), so you can bet that there will be those who won’t hesitate to move into character assassination at a moment’s notice.
In related news, LeBlanc says he’ll be meeting with MP Han Dong in the near future to discuss his future and whether he’ll be able to re-join the party given the allegations against him, which David Johnston found to lack credibility in his report. It sounds like LeBlanc hasn’t had the time to deal with this with everything else going on over the summer, so we’ll see where that leads.
Programming note: It’s my birthday this weekend, so I’m going to make it a long-ish weekend on the blog. See you next week!
Ukraine Dispatch:
Russians attacked the Danube port of Izmail for the fourth time in five days, damaging more grain silos and critical infrastructure. Ukrainian forces are gearing up air defences in preparation for another winter of attacks on their energy systems and power grid. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has tasked his new defence minister with rebuilding trust after a series of corruption allegations in the defence forces, particularly around procurement. Ukraine is also calling for more international pressure on Russia to return the children they have taken from Ukraine over the course of the invasion.
Stephen Fry and I had a cordial and friendly meeting.
We talked about a variety of aspects of Ukrainian life: culture, resilience, and our people's bravery.
I thanked him for supporting Ukraine. We all hope for a just peace to be restored. pic.twitter.com/WPbVuaN8tv
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) September 7, 2023
A couple of days after everyone declared ministerial responsibility dead for Ontario housing minister Steve Clark’s refusal to resign over the Integrity Commissioner’s report and his own gross negligence and dereliction of his duties, Clark did resign, at 9 AM on Labour Day, pointing to an attempt to take the sting out of the messaging. Ford later announced changes to his Cabinet which would put Paul Calandra in the housing file, in addition to Calandra’s existing role as House Leader.
So we can look forward to Calandra crying in Question Period when facing tough questions, or trying to deflect with homilies about family pizza shops and other wholly invented non sequiturs? https://t.co/rHdoM8x2ov
This is how you know, in the government’s mind, housing has gone from an existential problem for Ontarians, to an existential problem for the government.
Ford, however, insists that the tainted process for those Greenbelt lands will carry on, and while he is promising a “review” of the process, he won’t do the one thing the Auditor General and Integrity Commissioner have said, which was to cancel this process and start over. In fact, yesterday morning, Ford left open the possibility of reviewing all Greenbelt land and opening it up for development, which is unnecessary for housing needs—he hasn’t even implemented the recommendations of his government’s own housing task force, which explicitly stated they don’t need to develop those lands because there are fifty other things they should be doing instead.
And that hasn’t been all. As this sordid affair continues to drip out, the identity “Mr. X” from the reports has been identified as a former mayor and developer who Ford has ties with, and his operation is practically stuffed with Batman villains. The jokes write themselves, but just make the corruption all the more hard to take.
My weekend column looks at how ministerial responsibility changed in the age of message discipline, but how Doug Ford and Steve Clark can’t do the bare minimum.
At National Magazine, I look at the number of “secret trials” that we have seen come to light recently, and what could be behind them.
Also at National Magazine, I get some reaction to the Competition Tribunal’s cost award to the Bureau and the signals that they are sending by it.
My column points out just how inappropriate it is for premiers to write open letters to Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem, and how it corrodes our system.
Ukraine Dispatch:
Russian strikes damaged more grain warehouses at the Danube port of Izmail. Ukrainian forces say that they have taken more ground in both the eastern and southern fronts, as president Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited two front-line areas. Ukraine’s defence minister is being replaced by Rustem Umerov, a Crimean Tatar, who headed a privatization fund. Ukraine’s parliament passed an anti-graft law that contains a loophole, and many are urging Zelenskyy to veto it as a result. A parts shortage and a dispute over intellectual property rights is hobbling the ability to repair the Leopard 2 tanks we sent to Ukraine. And Ukrainian intercepts show Russian soldiers complaining about poor equipment and heavy losses.
A day on the frontlines with our warriors and combat medics in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions.
On behalf of all Ukrainians, I thanked each and every one of them who risk their lives to defend Ukraine and liberate our land.
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) September 4, 2023
This is russian know-how: anti-drone protection on a strategic aircraft made from used tires. Eco-friendly, effective, and reliable. If only protection like this had been installed on the interplanetary station Luna-25! pic.twitter.com/QuL0thnsRl
